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Playsand Going "Crusty"

Jamess

Member
Joined
15 Sep 2008
Messages
48
Hey i posted a couple weeks ago about what i thought was diatoms. Everytime i vac the top layer of sand and add new within days it has gone to what i can only describe as "crusty" I have Rio 180, medium level of plants, 2 filters a tetratec ex700 and a eheim 2213 to boost flow. I dose easy carbo and TPN at regular levels and change 25% of the water every week. The fish load is 6 baby angels and 10 adult cardinals. I am in the process of buying equipment to go High Tec co2 and am going to replace all the plants as the current ones were just for algae control in tghe knew tank. I am also getting what appears to be staghorn on the valls and java fern. Any Ideas?
 
I get this with my sand in my tanks. It's just bits of algae and dirt in the top layer. All I do is syphon out some sand during water changes, swirl it around and clean it a bit in hot water then add it back in. As the tank matures you find it settles down and happens less quickly, if at all, probably as the bacterial population in the sand matures.

The other option, if you don't have carpeting plants is to stick a few cories in there! I've put 8 (6 C.napoensis which swim off the bottom a lot and are a great species IMO and 2 C.robinae) in one of my tanks that was getting some BGA and diatoms in the sand and on the plant leaves and the constant action of the cories has meant that it has almost disappeared! The napoensis especially glide over the plant leaves and slate backdrop of the tank hoovering away as they go! The robinae stick to the substrate and are rather flightly, but really dig into the sand when there's food in there.
 
This used to happen to me but I just ignored it. I still did water changes but didn't pull up the dirty layer. It sorted iteslf out and the sand looks more natural now than when it was white.

This was pre corys too.

AC
 
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